Biography of Charles Frances Himes from the Ancestor Archive

Charles Francis Himes

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CHARLES FRANCIS HIMES, Ph.D., LL. D. This widely known educator and scientist was born in Lancaster county, Pa., in 1838. The family, however, came from Adams county. His father, William D. Himes, and his grandfather. Colonel George Himes, were both well known. His ancestry was of the German immigration of about 1730. When only seventeen years of age he was graduated at Dickinson College as A. B. with high rank. Immediately after graduation he taught Mathematics and Natural Science in a seminary of the Wyoming Conference for a year, then went to Missouri, where he taught in the public schools and read law at the same time. During a visit to the East he was persuaded to resume teaching and after being connected with Baltimore
Female College for a year, he became professor of Mathematics in Troy University. In 1863 he went to Germany, and prosecuted scientific studies at the University at Giessen. In the fall of 1865 he returned to America to assume the professorship of Natural Science in Dickinson College, which he had accepted upon the urgent request of the faculty and trustees of the college. He at once proposed and carried out successfully elective Laboratory Courses of study in the Junior and Senior years, according to the report of the National
Commissioner of Education among the very first of the kind in the country, and by pen and addresses he advocated the New Education of that day. In 1885, at the opening of the Jacob Tome Scientific Building, Dr. Himes selected the chair of Physics. He had contributed much to the erection of this building by his persistent advocacy of enlarged facilities for the expanded department, and he added complete Physical Laboratory courses at once to the curriculum of the college. At the commencement, in June 1S96, Professor Him.es presented his resignation to the Trustees because of the serious demand made upon his time by the purely routine work of a professorship. Aside from his duties as a Professor, he was for many years Treasurer of the corporation and was Secretary of the Board of Trustees up to the recent meeting. As senior professor in service, he was acting President of the college for months at a time. In each of these relations to the college, as well as professor, his term of service exceeded that of any other in the long history of the college. In accepting the resignation of Professor Himes, the Board of Trustees coupled, with expressions of regret, the conferment of the degree of LL. D., in recognition of his attainments and his great service to the college. The graduating class made a prominent feature of Class-day exercises the unveiling of a portrait of Dr. Himes, hung in Bosler Hall, presented by the class to the college, with remarks expressive of the high place held by him in the affections of his students.
The consensus of opinion of the alumni of the thirty-one years of his professorship seems to be, that as a teacher he never confined his instruction to the text book, and that his methods were personal rather than mechanical, and effective in inspiring to thoughtful study rather than to sporadic cram, whilst his acknowledged success as a disciplinarian, without the use of a demerit mark throughout his long professorship, seemed to be due to the universal respect of his classes resulting from a dignified and friendly intercourse, Naturally a man of fine feeling and noble instincts, he has endeared himself to every class, and he will be remembered with great respect by everyone familiar with his work. Dr. Himes has seen much of life in the old world. He was a student there from 1863 to 1865, and in 1872, 1883, and again in 1890 visited the old world, accompanied by his family. He was one of the earliest amateur photographers, and always abreast of the most advanced methods, and his camera has always been a valuable companion in these trips, furnishing valuable notes of science and travel, including the glaciers of the Zermatt region of Switzerland. Instruction in Photography, as an educational means, and as an aid in scientific investigation, has had a place in the Physical Laboratory of the college for years. Dr. Himes also organized and conducted successfully the first Summer School of Photography, in 1884 and 1885, at Mt. Lake Park, Md., which is still in successful operation. Besides his regular work in the college he has delivered numerous lectures and addresses of a scientific, educational and popular character. Among those published, some fully illustrated, may be mentioned those on "Actinism or the Scientific Basis of Photography," delivered at the International Electrical Exhibition in Philadelphia; on "The Stereoscope and its Applications;" on "Amateur Photography in its Educational Relations," before the Franklin Institute,
Philadelphia: on "The Scientific Expert in Forensic Procedure," before the Franklin Institute and the Dickinson School of Law; "Science in the Common Schools," before the Pennsylvania State Teachers' As sociation; "Phenomenon of the Horizontal Moon and Convergency of the Optic Axis in Binocular Vision," before the New York Academy of Sciences; "Scientific Theories and Creeds," before the American Institute of Christian Philosophy; "Photography as
an Educational Means," before the Congress at the Columbian Exposition 1893; "Address at the opening of The Jacob Tome Scientific Building."
His contributions to scientific and educational literature are numerous and valuable, among them "Preparation of Photographic Plates by Day-light," "Methods and Results of Observations of Total Eclipse of the Sun," "Review of Professor Porter's American Colleges and American Public," "Methods of Teaching Chemistry," "Photography Among the Glaciers," "Investigation of the Electric Spark by means of Stereoscopic Photography," &c., &c.
From 1872 to 1879 Dr. Himes was associated with Professor S. F. Baird in the preparation of the "Record of Science and Industry," and of the scientific columns of Harper's publications, and other periodicals. He has also published three editions of "Will's Tables for Chemical Analysis," translated and enlarged; "Leaf-Prints, a text-book of Photographic Printing;" "the Stereoscope, Its History, Theory, and Construction;" "Report of the Section of the United States Government Expedition, Stationed at Ottumwa, Iowa, to Observe and Photograph the Total Eclipse of the Sun, in 1869;" "History of Dickinson College, more particularly of the Scientific Department, and of Scientific Education in America."  Illustrated.
Professor Himes is a Member and Fellow of the Association for the Advancement of Science; the American Philosophical Society of Philadelphia; the New York Academy of Sciences; the Philadelphia Photographic Society; the Maryland Academy of Sciences; American Institute of Christian Philosophy; The Pennsylvania German Society, &c.
Professor Himes married Miss Mary E. Murray, a daughter of Rev. Joseph A. Murray, D. D., a prominent Presbyterian minister of Carlisle, Pa. They have two children Mary M. and Anna M.